This is adventure conservation for those who are comfortable scrambling about on rocky terrain. Lots of very cool things to see along the coast, including incredible tottering cliffs, rare coastal ecology, plentiful sea life, whales and the occasional mating tourons. The rangers are very knowledgeable about their little patch and love sharing their knowledge with others. Did I mention its whale season!?

This day we will head around to the cliffs above the ocean-side beach and work around the eastern point. Not many people ever get out that far and its a pretty cool place to explore. Cruisy weeding as we'll just be picking out the isolated pioneering bitou amongst the themeda grasslands.

I am also in discussions about doing some work at North Head, drop us a line if you are interested.

Thanks to the folks who turned out at Barrenjoey on the weekend. I was stoked to see more than 20 turn out, our biggest day out yet!

It was a cold morning and we headed out anticlockwise around the headland to the spectacular north east point, which was thankfully in the warming sun. There we found one last patch of bitou to dispense with for the north eastern grasslands. We also put the asparagus fern back a couple of years. Only Dave managed to spot a whale (grrr) but we all got entertained with the dolphins doing their usual entertaining leaps and dives. Perhaps the most fun was watching a sneaky pelican swoop down and steal a sizeable fish from the rock fisherman nearby, classic!

Beautiful day...

A family affair... Kamikazee George and daughter Anna..

SRC Rockies members Mary, Basil and Hester...

Themeda grasslands bitou bush free...

We were joined by NPWS rangers Rachel and Judy. It was great to get some friendly conversation with Rachel (ranger responsible for Barrenjoey headland) who was previously ranger at Sydney Harbour NP... we discussed development controversies at Barrenjoey, geological stability of North Head, dodgy fishermans ladders (which interestingly they are planning on removing) and liability concerns over bolts... A good opportunity for us as climbers to put forward our perspective in a non-formal, friendly and positive environment.

Ranger Jude and Jinko bag asparagus

Happy bitou bashers resting for lunch..

We all headed back to the isthmus for lunch, and then Andrew, George, Steve, Kyong and Jinko headed off for a few climbs while the rest of us headed up to the lighthouse. Normally its closed to the public but rangers have.... um.....keys! The museum was pretty cool with lots of old photos of the headland from 100 years ago. It was interesting to see the vegetation and land use changes. And the view from the top of the light is a-w-e-s-o-m-e.

The lighthouse...

Dave Noble on whale watch!

The light...

I guess the old kerosene light was a bit of an OH&S risk...
err just remember to tie it to something before you jump!

Cool stuff in the museum...

Feedback I got from the day out was that people are interested in working the littoral forest just beneath the south west crag (I should be able to arrange) and whether we could get a weekend happening with an evening barbie/sleepover at the lighthouse with two half-weed/half-climb days, similar to what we do on Goat Island in Sydney Harbour ( I'll give it a go.) We have a few more small patches of bitou to tackle about the place, but we will be soon onto doing "followup bushcare" which will basically involve circumnavigating the headland in one day and treating any small bushes we missed, which is pretty cruisy work!